12
What’s your favourite mass media?
Textbook: p. 18
GoalThe news article: the lede, the Five Ws, the inverted pyramid and rules for quotes.
New words
lede (lead) · yangilik boshlanmasisource · manbaquote · iqtibosinverted pyramid · teskari piramida
Explanation
The opening sentence of a news story is called the lede (or lead), and it carries the most important facts. We write it with the “tell a friend” idea: Who? What? When? Where? Why? A news story uses an inverted pyramid: the most important facts come first and the least important come last. For a direct quote we normally use the verb said, and we give a person’s full name and title the first time and only the last name afterwards: “We are very proud,” head teacher Malika Karimova said. Always show the source of a statement.
Worked examples
Lede: Pupils of School 12 in Samarkand planted two hundred trees in the school yard on Saturday to make the air cleaner. Who: pupils of School 12. What: planted two hundred trees. When: Saturday. Where: in the school yard. Why: to make the air cleaner.
“Every pupil took care of one tree,” head teacher Malika Karimova said. Karimova added that the school would water the trees every week. (This is an invented model story.)
Class activity
“Write a lede”: the teacher gives three topics (a school contest, a new library, an eco action); pairs write a lede and two quotes.
Practice
1
List the Five Ws.
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
2
Which verb do we normally use to introduce a quote?
said
3
Where does the most important information go in an inverted pyramid?
At the beginning
4
Why should a lede be short and clear?
Because readers should understand the main point from the first sentence.